Battle for Veritas
by ChickenOfDoom
Summary: The UNSC colony of Veritas comes under attack by a Covenant fleet, and the UNSC scramble to defend it with everything they have. PLEASE NOTE - On hold for an indefinite amount of time.
1. SPARTAN Delta Squad

**A/N: I deleted my previous Halo story because the main character had no personality and the other characters weren't exactly great either, and it'd be boring to read. So I wrote this instead and uploaded it instead.**

The hovering, purple 'Wraith' tank exploded, a beam from a Spartan Laser having torn a neat hole straight through it. SPARTAN-151 ducked behind the rock he was standing next to, his target destroyed.

"Nice shot." remarked SPARTAN-287, who was in cover behind a rock three meters to the left of her teammate's.

"Of course it was, Ruth. It's me!" SPARTAN-151 bragged cockily, using 287's name.

Ruth laughed, "That makes it all the more surprising, Nick."

Nick frowned angrily as he vaulted over his rock and fired a burst from his MA5B Assault Rifle, taking out a short, stubby, grey-skinned Grunt. Ruth joined him, taking out two more Grunts with her M392 Designated Marksman Rifle.

"Whereas I..." she continued, "Consider good shots sloppy."

"Elitist..." Nick murmured jokingly.

Ruth's augmented hearing let her easily hear the mock insult.

"How polite, Nick." she teased.

Nick just grunted and slid behind the stump of as destroyed tree to avoid the alien's retaliation. Ruth was slower to find cover and took a hit to her thigh from a sizzling blue plasma bolt. She winced as she hunkered down behind a rock.

"You alright?" asked Nick.

Beneath all their teasing and arguing, the two SPARTANs cared for each other as much as they did any other SPARTAN in their squad of six.

"I'm fine!" Ruth snapped, angry at herself for her mistake.

Nick popped up from his cover and finished off the last two Grunts in the Covenant patrol with two well placed bursts from his Assault Rifle. He turned his sights on the final alien, a tall, lizard like Elite clad in blue armor. He squeezed the trigger, but his gun clicked.

'Empty. Shit!' thought Nick.

The Elite fired at him and he had to duck back behind the stump, which was rapidly being melted away by the alien's Plasma Rifle.

"Ruth, I could do with some help here!" Nick yelled at his teammate.

Ruth charged the Elite from the side, firing her M6D pistol, then slammed her knife through it's weakened energy shields and into it's throat, leaving a gaping hole in the alien's neck. It collapsed to the ground, bleeding heavily through it's fatal wound.

"You owe me two now." Ruth stated, wiping the blood off of her combat knife.

"You still keeping track of that?" Nick asked.

"Yep." Ruth laughed.

"Let's get a move on. We need to regroup with the others." Nick said, referring to the rest of SPARTAN-II Delta Squad.

The squad had been flying in to destroy a Covenant base at the top Gonzales Mountain on the UNSC colony Veritas. The colony had been attacked by the Covenant about a week earlier, and the UNSC were bringing in all of their nearby assets to defend the populous and economically valuable planet.

The SPARTANs had been nearing their landing zone when their Pelican was shot down. Theys had been forced to leap out and were scattered across the mountain. They had set a meeting point over the comm, and began their journey.

Nick and Ruth had been about halfway there when they had met a Covenant patrol - an Elite lead Grunt lance with a Wraith tank attached.

"Yeah, that skirmish slowed us down quite a bit." Ruth agreed.

"This is SPARTAN-174, I need backup. I'm pinned down by a large amount of Covenant with armour!" a shout came through into the two SPARTAN's comms.

"Salim, this is Ruth, what's your location?" Ruth asked over the comm, using her comrade's name.

"I'm at the meeting point. It was a trap!" Salim replied.

"Alright, we're on our way. Good luck, Salim." Ruth said, then she shut off her comm.

The two SPARTANs took off at a run, moving as fast as an average human could sprint. In about a minute they came up to a ridge behind the meeting point, and saw Salim in cover behind a rock, with dozens of aliens and five Wraith tanks bombarding the area with plasma. Nick wasted no time in taking out one of them with his Spartan Laser, as Ruth started taking out Grunts with clean headshots.

"Good to see you two!" Salim yelled as he rolled a grenade into a cluster of Grunts.

"Give me a hand up the ridge!" ordered Salim.

"Alright. Ruth, keep their heads down!" Nick bellowed above the sound of the battle.

"On it!" Ruth replied, and she got out her Assault Rifle and laid down covering fire.

Salim sprinted for the ledge, and jumped halfway up. Nick reached down an grabbed his hand, then hauled him up onto the ridge. A plasma shot hit the ground a hairsbreadth from Nick's foot, and he quickly backed away from the Covenant's line of fire. The three SPARTANs retreated from the battle and hid in a small cave semi-hidden by moss.

"We need to warn the others." Salim stated once the trio were all gathered in the cave.

"Or I'll need to save their lives too." Nick added.

"I did all the hard work." Ruth said, "All you did was help Salim up."

Salim sighed, tired of Nick and Ruth's arguing already.

"It was a team effort." he said, acting as a peace maker, "Now let's warn the others.

They did so, each SPARTAN warning one other, and sending them the location of the cave, but encrypting it first to stop the Covenant finding their location.

After that, they waited in silence. The first SPARTAN to arrive was Amy, SPARTAN-222 and Delta Squad's medic.

"Good to see you lot are all still in one piece." Amy said as she entered the cave.

Ruth's keen eyes notices scorch marks along her friend's side, barely visible in the dark cave.

"You've been hit." she said.

"It's nothing much, just a few plasma bolts that clipped my armour." Amy replied, glancing at her side.

The conversation shifted with the arrival of SPARTANS 184 and 244, David and Melissa. David was carrying Mellisa over his shoulder, and the latter's MJOLNIR armour was scorched black in several places.

"What happened?" Amy asked, getting out her medic's kit and rushing over to her wounded teammate.

"We were attacked by Spec Ops Elites. I barely managed to get out of there with Melissa." David explained as Amy laid Melissa out on the ground.

"Weapons used?" Any asked, inspecting Melissa's wounds.

"Plasma rifles." David replied.

Amy didn't reply, just started healing Melissa with a combination of injections and bandages, working quickly and quietly. She was in something the team called SPARTAN mode - where nothing mattered but the task at hand. Whereas the first class of SPARTAN-IIs were permanently in that mode, the second class - Delta Squad's - had been allowed to remain 'human', for reasons such as being more able to work with Marines and Troopers, and being able to blend better with crowds. As the medic worked her magic, the other SPARTANs started talking.

"So what's the plan?" David asked, turning to Salim.

"We head straight for the base." the Squad's leader replied simply.

"Sounds like a good plan." Ruth commented, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Shut up!" Salim snapped, then he returned to the plan, "As we walk to the base, the Army will stage a dummy assault on a Covenant outpost nearby, allowing us to reach the base relatively uncontested."

"Sounds like a good plan." Ruth said, serious this time.

"What do we do at the base?" David asked.

"We find the main plasma reactor and let Nick do what he does best." Salim explained.

Nick hefted his Spartan Laser for emphasis.

"One problem - that'll make the base explode." Ruth said.

"No shit." Nick said.

"The problem with that is what, exactly?" asked Salim.

"We'll be in it?" Ruth said in a voice usually reserved for saying 'duh'.

"It won't explode instantly." Salim sighed, "I did think this through."

There was a few seconds of silence.

"Amy, what's Mel's status?" Salim asked.

"She's stable. Burns of all degrees, all wounds cauterised by plasma. She won't be able to fight for a while yet, though." Amy explained, finishing her medical work.

"Damn. Stay here and guard her." Salim ordered, "Everyone else, let's get going. On me!"

The four SPARTANS proceeded up the mountain quickly and quietly, taking out the few Covenant they encountered with lethal efficiency. At a few points they had to climb parts of the mountain too step to walk, and once they had to backtrack at a steep overhang. Despite that delay, they still only took a short period of time to arrive, granting them a view of a smooth, purple Covenant base and hordes of aliens firing down the other side of the mountain at the army troopers launching a fake assault on them.

"The army are doing their part." Ruth commented.

"The sky is blue." Nick said.

"Actually, it-" Ruth started.

"Shut up." Salim said.

At that moment a green bolt hit the grounds inches from David's foot. The four SPARTANs rushed into cover behind boulders.

"Jackal marksman!" David shouted.

"I see it." Ruth replied, aiming her DMR.

She fired and almost instantly the Jackal fell off of the base's walkway, dead. Thankfully, it's comrades inside didn't notice it's death.

"No other Covies on this side of the base." David observed.

"Then let's go inside and kick some alien ass!" Nick grinned.

Ruth opened her mouth to speak, but before she finished the first syllable Salim told her to shut up.

The four SPARTANs jogged across the open ground leading up to the Covenant base, and stacked up on the smooth purple doors leading inside it.

Salim spoke into his comm and the army company opposite the SPARTANs retreated down the mountain.

"Plant the charges." Salim ordered.

"And one day they will grow into a beautiful explosion." Ruth said as Nick placed a breaching charge on each side of the doors,

The charges detonated with barely audible poofs and the doors fell over inwards. Salim charged into the corridor inside, the others tailing him closely.

They made their way through the corridors silent as the outer space until they reached a fork guarded by an Elite clad in scarlet red and two grovelling Grunts who were clearly being disciplined. The SPARTANs ducked behind a corner and attached silencers to their weapons.

"Nick, Ruth, get the Elite. David, get the Grunt on the left." Salim whispered.

His comrades nodded, and he started a countdown with his fingers. Three. Two. One.

A small lightshow lit up the corridor as bullets shot through the recycled air like jets, and the two Grunts head's exploded in clouds of blue blood. The Elite was torn to shreds before it could call for help or return fire, it's energy shields broken by human small arms.

Ruth, being the team's unofficial scout, ran forward and checked the two forks. She peered down each for several seconds, then waved her friends forwards to her position.

They met no other resistance on the way to the base's reactor, and were soon standing in a small room, as hot as a furnace, looking at a shielded plasma reactor. The only obstacle left to the team of supersoldiers was three Elite Zealots wielding energy swords, their golden armour glowing slightly blue in their weapons' light. Their reptilian eyes were glaring straight at the SPARTANs who dared to invade their base.

Ruth moved first, rolling through the closest one's armoured legs and hitting it in the back. It stumbled forwards, shields beeping, and Salim rammed his combat knife into it's chest as Nick opened fire on one of it's comrades. The first Zealot fell as two and three charged. Nick kept his aim on two until the last moment then leapt to the side, almost slamming into the wall. David dropped a burst into it but the rounds bounced harmlessly off if it's shields. Meanwhile, Salim and Ruth dished around three, swiping with combat knives and fired their magnums one handed. The zealot got a lucky hit on Ruth and she fell to the ground, her left arm seared open along it's length and her right kneecap cut open. Nick and David quickly finished off zealot two and moved to help, but Salim had already disarmed the Elite. Nick grabbed the energy sword from the ground and cleaved the zealot almost in half with it.

"Ruth, are you okay?" Nick asked worriedly.

"Clearly yes." Ruth replied.

"Can you run?" asked Salim.

"No." Ruth replied in her best 'duh' voice.

"Alright, David, carry Ruth. Nick, make a bang." Salim ordered.

Nick stood up and aimed his Spartan Laser at the reactor. It charged and then sent a scarlet red beam through the reactor. Alarms sounded, and the SPARTANs fled. Plasma bolt and explosive pink needles nicked their armour as the Covenant tried to stop them escaping. Purple corridors rushed by like cars on a highway. Alien shouted curses at the running and carried superclusters as they broke out into the sunlight and got as far from the base as possible.

They were a hundred and sixty meters away when it exploded in a flash of heat and light almost half as powerful as the sun during it's peak femtoseconds. The SPARTANs were sent tumbling to the ground even from their distance and their armour was singed.

"Good work." Melissa said over the team's comm.

"I made the explosion." Nick jokingly bragged.

"I made it possible." Ruth said, hiding the pain in her voice effectively.

"I was the mastermind, so I win." Salim said, "Now let's go join that army company, help them until we get extraction."

"Aye aye." Nick said, brushing dust off of him.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!**


	2. Echo Fireteam

**A/N: Enter the second group of characters that this story will follow!**

Private Tim Farl stood at the gate to the 102nd Infantry Battalion's fire base. He was monitoring the gates, his first ever duty in the UNSC; he was a new recruit. His MA37 assault rifle was held loosely, it's recently polished surface catching the sweltering midday sun.

Tim polished everything; his boots, his weapons, his cap badge, he even polished his armour when he could get away with it. It made stealth considerably harder, but the UNSC issued camouflage paints that could stop the shine until washed off, which stopped the problem with a quick layer before every battle.

A Warthog jeep came hurtling down the dirt tracks leading into the fire base. Clumps of mud flew from the ground, churned up by the vehicle's wheels. Tim held his hand up, bringing the warthog to a stop inches from the gate.

"State your name, rank and purpose," Tim said.

"You don't need to bother with that stuff in the middle of a warzone," the Warthog's driver sighed.

"Regulations state that I do," Tim replied.

"Really, kid, regulations were written for peacetime," the driver said.

"Just give him the damn details," the Warthog's passenger said.

The driver sighed.

"Corporal Mike Enslow, 102nd Infantry. Returning from scouting mission," the driver stated.

Tim tapped at the console by the gate, updating the logs. He frowned as he saw the last entry was three days ago. Maybe the driver - Corporal Enslow - had been right about regulations.

Tim opened his mouth to speak, but the gate hissed open and an officer stepped out of the firebase.

"You four, report to the armoury," the officer ordered.

Tim snapped to attention and the Warthog crew and gunner stiffened where they sat.

"Yes, sir," they barked as one.

Tim was doubtful as to how good the officer was; he was leaving the gate unmonitored, which was definitely not regulation procedure. His mind once again snapped back to the corporal's comment on the regulations.

"Hey, kid, hop on," Enslow said.

Tim stopped himself before he could say how regulations limited warthog riders to three.

"Thanks, corporal," Tim said, climbing into the back of the warthog and sitting by the machine gun.

"No problem," Enslow said, starting the warthog back up and driving through the now open gate.

"What squad you from?" the passenger asked.

"Bravo Squad, 1st Platoon, Alpha Company," Tim answered.

"Bravo 1 Alpha?" the passenger said, shortening the name of the squad, "You must be our new replacement."

"Welcome to the squad," Enslow said, turning the wheel to the right.

"Uh, thanks," Tim said nervously.

"I'm PFC Jay Green," the passenger said, "quiet one back there with you is Private Sam Backster."

"Private Tim Farl," Tim said shaking hands with PFC Green as the warthog slowed to a stop.

The four Marines disembarked and headed into the armoury.

"Sorry about the thing at the gates, corporal," Tim said apologetically.

"No biggie. Everyone's like that at first," Enslow said with a smile.

An officer stood just inside the doors.

"Echo Fireteam, Bravo 1 Alpha reporting as ordered, sir," Enslow reported.

"Prep for combat. Captain Dwight wants 1st Platoon ready in," the officer said, glancing at his watch, "eight minutes."

"Yes sir," Enslow said, saluting.

The officer returned the salute, and waved the four members Bravo 1 Alpha in.

"How big is this squad?" Tim asked as he quickly grabbed some camouflage paint.

"12 men, like, every squad ever," Green said.

"Then how are we Echo fireteam?" Tim asked, confused at how E was the fifth letter, and five fireteams of four would make twenty.

"Because fireteams are consistent through the platoon. Having three alphas would get a little confusing," Enslow explained.

Tim thanked the corporal an rubbed paint over his rifle, giving it green and brown streaks all over it and stopping the shine. He took a moment to observe his comrade's gear; standard issue armour with their names stencilled on the back in black, helmets with eyepads and microphones, M6D pistols, nothing out of the ordinary. Enslow and Green had Assault Rifles like Tim, but Backster had a Designated Marksman Rifle.

Once they were geared up, Echo fireteam returned to the armoury entrance, where most of 1st platoon's three squads were waiting. After a minute or so, all 36 soldiers and the platoon Gunnery Sergeant were waiting for orders.

Captain Dwight, Alpha Company's OC walked up to the platoon flanked by a 2nd Lieutenant and thirty seven soldiers saluted.

"At ease," Captain Dwight ordered, then paused.

"As you probably know, the Covenant have ceased their attacks on the Gonzales Mountain area after special forces destroyed their base."

Tim had heard about that; rumour had it the special forces had been SPARTANs.

"However, they have started attacking the farms over on the west o the continent," Captain Dwight explained, "We just received words several towns are under attack, and you lot get the pleasure of defending the town Tically. Report to Pelican Bay 2, on the double."

"Sir, yes sir!"

LBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLB

Roughly half and hour later Tim and the rest of Bravo 1 Alpha were inside a vertical take off and landing droship nicknamed a Pelican. It's interior was lit red by the emergency combat lights and the stains on the floor taught Tim why it was nicknamed the 'blood tray'. The aircraft rattled and shook in midair as it descended into Tically.

The aircraft juddered one final time as it touched down, and the doors at the rear opened with a pneumatic hiss. Shafts of sunlight burst into the blood tray as screams of 'go, go, go' met Tim's ears. He got up from his seat and rushed off of the Pelican, rifle ready in his hands. His thumb pushed the safety catch off as his boot met the concrete road outside the dropship.

Tim looked around. The sky in the distance was bathed with a red tint and smoke was rising from the ground like steam from a kettle. The buildings along the road were once simple houses, turned into burning wreckages missing their top floors. Soldiers were rushing forwards, rifles firing. Silhouettes of short, stubbly figures with conical armour of some kind and tall, broad figures were standing at the end of the smoky street. Blobs of green and blue light were being flung towards Tim and his comrades.

A beam of violet light lanced through the soldier next to Tim, and the man fell to the ground, instantly dead. Tim dove behind the wreck of a car in fear. Heat washed over him as the alien's weapons slammed into the other side of the car. He tried to clear his mind and think. Grunts and Elites, shooting plasma. The car would be melted through in no time. He needed to take action.

He reached for his belt, looking for his grenades. He found them in no time and pried one loose, raising it and pulling the pin. He sprang to his feet and hurled the grenade, sending it spinning in cartwheels through the air towards the Covenant position. The grenade landed perfectly at the feet of an Elite leading a Grunt squad forward. Tim allowed himself to think that his instructors would have been proud. The grenade detonated in a conflagration of fire and shrapnel.

"First blood - me," Tim said to himself, proud of his first kill.

He ducked back behind the car, and for a few seconds he knelt there, unnoticed by the Covenant. Then an explosion shot the car into the air and hurled him back a full two meters and singed his eyebrows. He lay sprawled out on the ground for a moemtn before rolling onto his front and grabbing his rifle. He raised it to fire, but was distracted by a strange screeching sound.

"Banshees!" someone yelled.

Tim couldn't recall what Banshees were off of the top of his mind, so he just fired at the Covenant infantry, blowing through a grunt's arm. He adjusted his aim but was pulled to his feet and into a building before he could fire. He struggled, but stopped when lines of blue plasma and green explosions covered the road where he had just been.

"Thank you," he said to whoever had dragged him inside.

"I couldn't exactly let you die in your first firefight, could I now?" Enslow replied.

Tim remained silent, unsure how to reply to that. All of Echo fireteam was in the building, half a dozen soldiers were dead in the street, and the rest of Bravo 1 Alpha were out of Tim's sight.

"We've lost the street, haven't we?" Green asked Enslow.

"Yep," Enslow replied, "Along with the rest of the block."

"Huh? The block?" Green said.

"Radio report told me that stealth elites took the streets further into the block," Enslow explained.

"What's the plan, corporal?" Tim asked nervously.

"We're going to have to sneak back to the UNSC lines," Enslow said.

The corporal led his three teamates out of the building and into it's garden, a small square of fenced in grass, with a barbeque gathering dust in the corner. The grass near the door was singed from the plasma bombardment of the street. Enslow ran up to the fence and rammed it, knocking out a few of the planks making it up. Green and Backster started helping, and Tim copied their example. Within seconds there was a hole in the fence wide enough for the fireteam to head through.

The soldiers repeated the maneuver until they reached the final fence before the next street. After a brief conversation, Backster gave Enslow a boost so he could see the next street.

"We're fucked," Enslow muttered once back on the ground, "I saw about forty grunts, bunch of jackals and four or five elites, setting up camp."

"What do we do?" Tim whispered, heart racing.

"I don't know, god damn it!" Enslow whispered

"Should we call for support?" Backster asked.

"Worth a try," Enslow shrugged before whispering into his microphone.

"What did they say?" Tim asked.

"They said support is on the way," Enslow whispered.

The soldiers waited for a while, and were met with the sound of gunshots. They bashed through the fence to see six figures firing at the covenant, sprinting from cover to cover as they did so. The figures were all incredibly tall, seven feet at the least, and running faster than most gold medal sprinters. Green armour covered their bodies, their eyes hidden by golden visors.

One of them, a DMR wielder and most likely a woman (Tim couldn't tell all that well through their armour) jumped over a car and kicked a jackal backwards into an elite, sending them both tumbling. Another ducked an elite's punch and rammed a grenade into it's throat, before kicking it back into a group of grunts.

"Who are they?" Tim asked, awestruck.

"Spartans," Green breathed.

Backster seemed unfazed by the SPARTANs, and he simply took a knee and started firing at the grunts and jackals the supersoldiers missed, sending rounds through their heads and hearts with accuracy that would have been impressive if it weren't for the SPARTAN with the DMR consistently hitting her targets between the eyes while moving. Another SPARTAN was somehow getting reasonable accuracy with dual M7 SMGs, guns infamous for being inaccurate and hard to control.

Fireteam Echo advanced in a loose line, firing in a pattern so they all had to reload at different times. Tim almost mucked it up, but his boot camp training had just about got him through. With a squad of six SPARTANs supporting them, the soldiers easily pushed the Covenant into retreat.

"We... we did it," Tim said once the last fleeing Jackal was cut down by a SPARTAN's rifle.

"The Spartans did all the hard work," Green said.

"You cleaned up after us and drew attention and fire," one of the SPARTANs, obviously the leader of the group, said, "You were useful."

Tim looked at the giant supersoldier. His armour was composed of green plates over a black bodysuit, and his helmet's golden visor reflected everything the SPARTAN saw. A number - 174 - was printed in white over his heart, and a greek Delta symbol was on his right shoulder.

"Corporal Mike Enslow, Bravo 1 Alpha, 102nd Infantry. Thanks for saving us," Enslow said, holding out a hand.

The SPARTAN shook it.

"Chief Petty Officer Salim-174, SPARTAN Delta Squad. Thanks for the assist."

**A/N: Thanks for reading, please leave a review. It'll save a pony's life.**


	3. Holding the Line

**A/N: This one's set a day or so later, mainly centered around Nick, Ruth and Melissa (the wounded SPARTAN in chapter 1), but it also features Tim Farl, Green and Salim. Enjoy!**

The sun was setting on the horizon, bathing the skies above Tically a beautiful orange colour. Melissa-244 took a moment to admire it; she had learnt in training to treasure all beauty in the world when he had a chance, and when the Covenant got involved, that window of time became very slim.

As though proving her point, the Covenant chose that exact moment to launch an attack on the UNSC's lines. Melissa leapt off of the roof she was on, a particle beam slicing through the air inches from her. She landed heavily in the front garden below, kicking up a cloud of dirt. She sprinted behind a sandbag and took cover as plasma rained upon the human lines.

In seconds, the rest of Delta arrived on the battlefield. Salim tossed Amy her weapons; Melissa caught an M7 SMG in one hand, an SRS99 sniper rifle in the other. She slapped the M7 to a magnetic holster on her thigh and took aim with the Sniper Rifle. She fired two shots and an Elite Zealot, an elite military leader, went down. She fired another two shots, one taking down an Elite Major, the second a Jackal Sniper, possibly the one who had fired at her earlier.

She ejected the empty magazine and pulled a new out of her magnetic storage box on her waist. Unlike her weapons, she kept ammo on her at all times, as it wasn't nearly as cumbersome. Once she was done reloading, she returned to firing, settling into a comfortable stance behind a sandbag and firing off three shots in quick sucession, taking out three ghost drivers. Her final shot missed it's target and soared harmlessly past the alien soldiers.

She took a moment to survey the battlefield. Almost a hundred Grunts led by a dozen Elites were surging forwards, with several Jackal shield walls moving ahead of large groups, protecting them from UNSC gunfire. Jackal snipers in the rooftops were methodically taking out Army marksmen, and a pair of Hunters were keeping the army platoon's lone Scorpion tank from joining the battle. Melissa decided to fix that problem.

She loaded a clip, and took aim at one of the hulking armoured beasts. Its fleshy body was almost all covered by armour and it's shield. Melissa spied an exposed bit of it's body and blew a hole straight through it. The Hunter span to face her, exposing it's 'face'. She fired and a round blew a smoking hole through the monster. It fell to the ground in a spray of alien blood and it's 'brother' roared in fury. It turned and charged Melissa's sandbag, firing it's fuel rod cannon as it went.

"Aaagh!" cried Melissa as a shot hit her sandbag, blowing it apart and sending her flying away from the frontline.

She landed almost ten meters back, covered in sand and scorch marks.

"Are you alright, Mel?" asked Ruth, who was crouched a few meters, away firing her DMR.

"Yeah, just a little singed," Melissa replied, grabbing her rifle from where it had landed.

"A little singed? Your look like you've just got back from a night op on a beach!" Ruth joked, referring to how SPARTANs painted their armour black for night operations.

"The burns didn't get through," Melissa said, firing at the remaining Hunter.

The Hunter blocked the bullet with it's shield, and turned to fire towards a machine gun nest. Seeing a chance, the Scorpion tank rolled onto the battlefield from down the street and blew the Hunter apart with one well placed shell. It then turned it's main gun and machinegun on the advancing Covenant, blowing apart a Jackal phalanx and scything down the Grunts behind it.

"Tanks are awesome," Melissa grinned.

"I'd like to see a Tank do this," Ruth replied, before sprinting forwards, leaping off of a car, turning in midair and shooting a Grunt lance from above, bypassing their Jackal guards.

"Tanks can do that easier using cannons," Melissa said.

"But it's not nearly as stylish," Ruth said.

"And so far more like you," Nick cut in over the squad's comm.

"Wow, I think that's the first decent bit of banter to ever come from you," Melissa said, moving back up to the sandbags and taking out her SMG.

"I agree. All the others bits have been exceptional, not just decent," Nick bragged, spraying bullets at a suicide grunt that was charging the lines, live grenades in it's hands.

The grunt fell, the grenades detonating harmlessly ten meters from the SPARTANs.

"If telling yourself that helps you sleep at night, then keep on doing it," Ruth said.

Nick frowned while he reloaded his assault rifle. He slapped a new clip in and raised his rifle to fire through the shimmering, smoky air.

_Huh_, he thought, air isn't meant to be _shimmery_.

Then he realised that it wasn't the air shimmering. It was a cloaked elite. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but before he could a dozen stealth elites leapt up from where they had been lying in front of the snadbags. Energy swords and plasma rifles burst to life, and Nick hit the dirt to avoid being beheaded. The soldier next to him wasn't so lucky.

The elite in front of Nick swung it's sword down at the SPARTAN, who dodged to the side and pulled out his combat knife. The elite sent out a kick that left Nick doubled over, and pulled it's sword back to strike the killing blow. The blade started to move forwards, and then a army private slammed into the Elite's side, sending it stumbling and making the sword blow miss the SPARTAN. Nick turned to the Elite to finish it off, but the young soldier had already dumped an MA37 clip into the alien's face.

"Thanks," Nick said as he aimed his rifle at an Elite charging towards Salim.

"Uh, um, no problem, sir," the soldier - Private Farl, his IFF tag told Nick - said.

Nick gunned down the Elite he had aimed at as Private Farl and another soldier from his fireteam forced another Elite inside the protection of a building.

"You two, on me!" Nick ordered, gesturing to Farl and his comerade - PFC Green.

The SPARTAN led the two soldiers into the building, and swept the center room with his rifle. Farl and Green swept the left and right in the way all soldiers were taught in basic training. Nick frowned as Farl forgot to sweep back afterwards; in battle, mistakes get you and your team killed.

He was broken from his thoughts by the Elite coming out of it's active camouflage and firing a plasma bolt from it's carbine, aimed at Green. Nick dove into it's path, his armour dispersing the shot harmlessly. The two soldiers fired at the Elite as Nick leapt back to his feet.

The Elite threw a grenade at Farl, who bolted out of the building to evade it. Nick raised his rifle, but the Elite leapt forwards, activating it's energy sword and cleaving the weapon in two. Nick swore an dukes under a sword swipe. The Elite took the chance to stab Green. The soldier tried to dodge but the blade caught him near his thight. The Elite proceeded kick Green in the face with it's hoof-like foot. The soldier fell to the ground and didn't get up.

"Looks like it's just you and me, lizard," Nick taunted, "Sorry about your bad luck."

The Elite growled and lunged. Nick leapt over the stab and kicked the Elite in it's mandibles. It staggered back and Nick drew his knife. The two blades clashed, the tungsten alloys in Nick's blade barely keeping it from being melted through instantly. Nick threw a left hook around the blades, but the Elite caught Nick's fist in it's n and hurled the SPARTAN to the side. Nick bumped into the wall, then pounced the Elite again. The Elite swung it's blade and Nick tucked into a ball midair to avoid it. Then he slammed into the Elite and sent them both crashing to the ground. He quickly recovered; plunged his knife into the Elite; wiped blue blood from his visor.

"I guess you just didn't cut it," Nick said.

"Huh?" Ruth said over the comm.

Nick quickly explained his duel and the pun he made afterwards.

"I'm embarrassed to know you," Ruth groaned.

Nick checked Green's pulse. The soldier was alive, just unconscious. Nick sent a radio message to the nearest Army medic before heading back outside.

The Covenant had forced the UNSC to fall back another street, leaving their fortifications behind. Some soldiers laid or crouched in the road firing, other were ducked behind improvised cover or firing from open windows. A few were in cover behind the Scorpion tank, which had been immboilised by a tread being blown off. It's main cannon, however, was working just fine. Nick kneeled down and opened fire, keeping open a path for a medic to come and rescue Green.

After a minute with no medic, Nick cursed and collected Green, slinging the soldier over his back. He tossed a handful of grenades at the Covenant, then sprinted to the UNSC's new lines. A plasma bolt skimmed his shoulder plate and another left a huge scorch mark less than an inch under where Green's arm hung. Nick made it to the Scorpion and hurled Green over it. He landed with a thump in the safety of the zone behind the vehicle, and Nick leapt over the tank and joined the unconscious soldier there.

"Oi, Daveo, get over here!" one of the other soldiers behind the tank shouted.

A medic with a red cross printed on his chestplate ran over, with another soldier covering him. The medic opened his med kit, took out some blue gel, and rubbed it on Green's stab wound before injecting him with some biofoam. He then scanned his skull with a portable x-ray. It wasn't broken. The medic wrapped a bandage around Green before hurrying off somewhere else.

Nick stood up and took aim over the tank, only for the Grunt lance he was aiming at to be decimated by a lightning fast set of headshots. He turned around to see Ruth and a soldier (Private Backster, his IFF read) seemingly engaged in a shooting contest.

"Bit unfair on the soldier, that contest," Nick commented over the comm.

"He has to get 66% of my score," Ruth replied, "Not all that unfair."

"Like how you got 66% of Melissa score of the sniper rifle contest," Nick teased.

"And how you got point 66% of the drunk two year old's score," Ruth said.

"If he got a negative score, that means I beat him," Nick said.

"He got half a point," Ruth said.

"Well, in this drug induced dreamland of yours, I'm sure he did," Nick said before turning his attention to the approaching Covenant. Dozens of dead lay in the road, along with roughly ten soldiers.

He switched to his Spartan Laser and blew a path through three high ranking Elites. The UNSC forces (six SPARTANS and just over a platoon of soldiers; 3 Alpha had arrived to reinforce the depleted 1 Alpha along with Delta squad) surged forwards, firing full auto at the Covenant, who panicked and broke out into a full retreat.

"We won," Salim said over the comm.

"No, really?" Ruth asked sarcastically.

"Shut it," Salim ordered.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, leave a review. If not, leave a review and I can improve it. Thanks in advance.**


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